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Matt, thank you for sharing that. I am sincerely glad to here ace is doing well. This story serves as a great lesson in reading your dog and responding appropriately and unfortunately what not to do. Which will become increasingly important in the upcoming months. Thanks again for sharing.

A special thanks to posting this. I have waterfowl hunted for 25 plus years w/chessies and never knew that dogs got cold weather hypo. About 2 weeks after reading this, I was hunting my field bred lab in 25 degree weather with about 2 inches of ice on the river. We had broken open a sizable hole to hunt over. On Blou's first water retrieve he came back Limping and whining. I thought he had sprained something. After a few minutes in the duck blind next to the heater he was his normal self. We then had a cripple doown in about 8 inches of water. After searching for it for about 5 minutes, he started to whine and would not leave my side. As we were making our way back to the blind, he collapsed. I was fortunate that he made a full recovery without a vet trip. Had I not read this post I would not have known what was wrong with my dog.

Thanks for keeping this posted. I had read this a while back and had it hit home last weekend. I almost lost my BLM after he made a long retrieve. I had him up out of the water for most of the morning, but he made a long trek just before we headed out. Ended up packing him for a ways. He made a full recovery, but was a little scary.

I made a mistake like that yeras ago. My mistake was to take my 6 year old lab to a lkae, the day after we had been spent several hours in South Texas hunting doves. She had a great day picking up and finding birds, and she as always loved being in the field.

The next day, after work I took her to a small lake for a short swim to loosen her up. It was hot (September in Texas) so I thought a swim would help her sore muscles form the day before. I let her walk around in the water for a few minutes before I pitched an orange bumper about 25 feet form shore. As soon as I released her, she hit the water swimming and as she approached the bumper, the sun was in her face and she swam past it by a half foot. She must have sen it out of the corner of her eye, or smeeled it, but she stopped swimming turned her head and grabbed the bumper in her mouth.

When she did, her back egsdropped, she fell off plane, and then she just sat there dog paddling with just her fornt quarters above water. I called to her and encouraged her,but she was floundering, and about to go under. I kicked off my feet, and jumped in to try to save her, as I got near her, she wass just aout out of gas, and only her head and an occasional paw was above water. I got to her just a she started to go under, and she did the only thing she could think to do, and she crawled on to the top of my head.

We were in about 10' of water, and I being 6'2", could not touch the bottom, all I could do was to grab her and shove her forward as hard as I could, to save myself. By the Grace of God, it worked. The forward motion enable her back legs to come up, she was back on plane, and headed to shore.

I was in dire straits though.I had taken a mouth full of water, and was trying to breathe, exhale, and throw up at the same time. Somehow, I manged to get close enough to shore to stand on the bottom as i desperately tried to clear my air path of water. I crawled out of the lake and up onto the bank, where my best friend was shaking the water out of her coat. I was laying on the ground still not breathing when a woman walking with her daughter came around the corner and found me. She screamed for help, and a man that lived across the street from the lake came over and turned me over and started raisning my arms above my head trying to pump water out of my airway. It worked, a large volume of water came rushing out of my mouth, and i got the first breath of air in about 3 minutes, maybe a little longer. Within another minute I was sitting up, breathing fine while my la licked me in the face, and wagged her tail.

Too danm close for comfort for both of us.

What did I learn ?

1. Give her a day or two after a strenuous hunt for the sore muscles in her body to heal on their own, before I take her to swim.

2. Put a swim vest on her every time I let her near the water

3. Make sure she is always in perfect shape, before, during and after hunting season.

That dog is almost 14, and if I took her today, she would try to hunt with me. That event took place some 8 years ago, and I would have had a hard time forgiving myself if I had let her down. I was lucky.

I will say a prayer for you and your dog tonight. By the way, there is a God, and he loves you.

I made a mistake like that yeras ago. My mistake was to take my 6 year old lab to a lake, the day after we had been spent several hours in South Texas hunting doves. She had a great day picking up and finding birds, and she as always loved being in the field.

The next day, after work I took her to a small lake for a short swim to loosen her up. It was hot (September in Texas) so I thought a swim would help her sore muscles form the day before. I let her walk around in the water for a few minutes before I pitched an orange bumper about 25 feet form shore. As soon as I released her, she hit the water swimming and as she approached the bumper, the sun was in her face and she swam past it by a half foot. She must have seen it out of the corner of her eye, or smelled it, but she stopped swimming turned her head and grabbed the bumper in her mouth.

When she did, her back legs dropped, she fell off plane, and then she just sat there dog paddling with just her fornt quarters above water. I called to her and encouraged her,but she was floundering, and about to go under. I kicked off my shoes, and jumped in to try to save her, as I got near her, she was just aout out of gas, and only her head and an occasional paw was above water. I got to her just a she started to go under, and she did the only thing she could think to do, and she crawled on to the top of my head.

We were in about 10' of water, and I being 6'2", could not touch the bottom, all I could do was to grab her and shove her forward as hard as I could, to save myself. By the Grace of God, it worked. The forward motion enable her back legs to come up, she was back on plane, and headed to shore.

I was in dire straits though.I had taken a mouth full of water, and was trying to breathe, exhale, and throw up at the same time. Somehow, I manged to get close enough to shore to stand on the bottom as I desperately tried to clear my air path of water. I crawled out of the lake and up onto the bank, where my best friend was shaking the water out of her coat. I was laying on the ground still not breathing when a woman walking with her daughter came around the corner and found me. She screamed for help, and a man that lived across the street from the lake came over and turned me over and started raisning my arms above my head trying to pump water out of my airway. It worked, a large volume of water came rushing out of my mouth, and I got the first breath of air in about 3 minutes, maybe a little longer. Within another minute I was sitting up, breathing fine while my lab licked me in the face, and wagged her tail.

Too danm close for comfort for both of us.

What did I learn ?

1. Give her a day or two after a strenuous hunt for the sore muscles in her body to heal on their own, before I take her to swim.

2. Put a swim vest on her every time I let her near the water

3. Make sure she is always in perfect shape, before, during and after hunting season.

That dog is almost 14, and if I took her today, she would try to hunt with me. That event took place some 8 years ago, and I would have had a hard time forgiving myself if I had let her down. I was lucky.

I will say a prayer for you and your dog tonight. By the way, there is a God, and he loves you.